the factor begins right now. >> i'm greg gutfeld in for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us. our top story tonight, the last ditch effort to avert the fiscal cliff. president obama met with congressional leaders for several hours at the white house today to try to hammer out a deal before taxes go up on more than 160 million americans. after the meeting, the president presented a new plan to avoid the cliff and said he was modestly optimistic. >> we had a constructive meeting today. senators reid and mcconnell are discussing a potential agreement where we can get a bipartisan bill out of the senate over into the house and done in a timely fashion so that we met the december 31st deadline. given how things have been working in this town we have to actually wait and see until it actually happens. the one thing that the american people should not have to wait and see is some sort of action. so if we don't see an agreement between the two leaders in the senate, i expect a bill to go on the floor. and i have asked senator reid to do. this put a bill on the floor that makes sure th